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The Spectacle Blog
Pat Robertson makes the radical observation that prison rape might not be an appropriate punishment for smoking a joint.
“It’s completely out of control,” Robertson told the New York Times yesterday. “Prisons are being overcrowded with juvenile offenders having to do with drugs. And the penalties, the maximums, some of them could get 10 years for possession of a joint of marijuana. It makes no sense at all.” Robertson suggested that marijuana be regulated like alcohol.
Robertson isn’t at the peak of his influence, to put it mildly, but it scrambles the culture war and goes further than the admitted inhaler in the White House.
View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/03/08/pat-robertson-reaffirms-suppor
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PattyMor| 3.8.12 @ 2:03PM
Just like outlawing alcohol didn't work, neither does outlawing drugs. Its just makes them illegal and more expensive. I have finally come to the conclusion that most of them should just be made legal. Go to the drug store, provide evidence that you are 21, and sign a release and get what you want. It takes the crime out. It would make the drugs clean and in precise dosages. Money now wasted on prision, fines, lawyers, and DEA could be put to treatment. It would end the chaos on the borders and in the inner cities. Robertson is right, but he doesn't go far enough.
Purple Lips| 3.8.12 @ 3:37PM
I agree with you, but the solution does create some irony. If you want a joint you can go to the pharmacy; just don't go to the pharmacy if you want some Benedryl (in many states you now needa script from your doc), or Primatine Mist (the aresol version has been outlawed in order to stop "Climate Change").
It's good to see Pat Robertson speak out for prison inmates. Him and the elderly Chuck Colson are the only 2 that do.
JJ| 3.8.12 @ 9:56PM
That's the problem. I will need synthroid the rest of my life, but why should I be required to see a doctor for a new prescription every year. What is it about recreational drugs that gives it a status not shared by medication that actually is needed. Fine, legalize drugs, but don't stop there, get rid of the FDA and let us decide our own medications.
Al Adab| 3.8.12 @ 3:15PM
Many would accept the arguments for legalization. The sad truth however, is that both our schools and legal system are full of children who, through no fault of their own, suffer from ADD, ADHD and learning disabilities caused directly by the parents drug use. Imagine if you will a carton of marijuana cigarettes or a box of MJ cigars. Imagine if you will full availability of Meth, Heroin, Coke (in all its forms) at every pharmacy. Then count the costs to the children and to the medical and educational systems that will have to deal with them.
Patty do you intened that they be prescription only or OTC? That is one of the distinctions (although without much difference given the propensity of Drs. and Nurse practitioners to write scripts) between decriminalization and legalization.
C Bowen | 3.8.12 @ 7:47PM
"ADD, ADHD and learning disabilities caused directly by the parents drug use"
Good point--Curveball was absolutely certain that this was part of Saddam's plan.
Tarr| 3.8.12 @ 3:44PM
Are dopers turning to religion? Pat needs a fresh fundraising stream.
aware| 3.8.12 @ 5:09PM
Weed is the "gateway drug".
First they get you to accept that the State has every right to tell you what you may or may not smoke for your own good. Now they are moving on to telling you what you may eat for your own good.
Eventually there is no action, endeavor, or "choice" they don't have veto power over.
And it all started with a single joint.
C Bowen | 3.8.12 @ 7:44PM
At the same time, aware, the conservatives are telling us that a women can purchase 'the Pill' which potentially can flush a life down the toilet--only the conservative doesn't want to fund it.
Try to buy some pot for pain or whatever, and the conservative still says jail time. Talked about screwed thinking...
aware| 3.9.12 @ 6:02AM
Another example of that cognitive dissonance prevalent in the confusion that is modern "conservatism".
My state(little "s") just passed drug testing for welfare recipients thanks to the theocons that control the Republican Party. Of course an amendment that would have required the same for elected officials didn't make it(there's a surprise!).
You should hear "conservatives" applaud with such comments as "I had to take a drug test to get my job" or "I took one to join the military", so "they" should too. So much for the presumption of innocence.
Drugs were never a threat to my constitutional protections but the drug war has been very effective in destroying the rule of law. I still have a choice with drugs but not with the drug war.
aware| 3.9.12 @ 6:11AM
Oh, and my small town(of 20 thousand) police force now has a tank thanks to the drug war. A freakin' tank! Added to the plane and 2 helicopters we now have an all arms army for this "war". We are located 500 miles from water but it wouldn't surprise me to hear local leaders express the need for a battleship and maybe a carrier or 2 in order for them to "protect" us from the drug hordes.
C Bowen | 3.8.12 @ 7:46PM
Mr. Antle;
I noted last time around that there was some synergy with the post-Robertson '88 campaign, and the Paul LP campaign of '88--with some crossover fundraising.
It dates back to the 70's hard money conferences and the birth of Christian Reconstruction (Rushdoony and Gary North's support for Mises's economic theories and social interaction with Rothbard) but it is good to see that Robertson might steer his flock back towards some real thinking.
albert constantine jr.| 3.8.12 @ 9:56PM
“"It's completely out of control," Robertson told the New York Times yesterday. "Prisons are being overcrowded with juvenile offenders having to do with drugs. And the penalties, the maximums, some of them could get 10 years for possession of a joint of marijuana.”
Regardless of what one feels about the legalization of marijuana or any other drugs, sometimes a ludicrous statement needs to be challenged. While I do not support legalization of drugs, I don’t scoff at every attempt to improve our approach as a society to the issue of substance abuse. I think the concept of a “War on Drugs” is misbegotten, in the same sense that a “War on Embezzlement” or “War on Domestic Violence” is a warped approach to behavior codified as illegal that you wish to prevent or reduce.
I’ve been working in the criminal justice system for more than a quarter century. I have participated in drug investigations at almost every level from international smuggling conspiracies to the addled junkie on the street, and involvement with every activity to include surveillance, search, seizure, arrest, prosecution, sentencing, probation, treatment, imprisonment, parole and pardons. I have examined the cases and criminal histories of thousands of criminal defendants. I have never seen anyone who was sentenced to a day of prison for possession of only a joint of marijuana.
I have seen offenders we caught with several pounds of marijuana pled to simple possession and given probation, which was subsequently revoked when they were found to be smuggling cocaine from California to the East Coast, and even then, only get house arrest for the violation. I’ve seen a ring caught smuggling 87 pounds through UPS get probation. I’ve also caught the elusive “juvenile” ( earlier found with a single bag of weed, who had since turned 18) at the gun shop with her multiple convicted felon boyfriend trying to straw purchase an AK47 not even be charged (they we got her with bundles of heroin within a year or so).
In my experience, the folks who are going to prison for drug charges are engaging in organized criminal activity. For most of them, if you legalize the drugs they are unlawfully financing themselves distributing now, they will not become licensed pharmacists. They will need to find other contraband to sell or other illegal activities to enrich themselves, because they are criminal opportunists.
If anyone, anywhere has factual evidence of any individual anywhere in the United States not previously sentenced for a crime sentenced after 1980 for first-time possession of a single joint who actually received and served any jail time for that offense, please let me know. I figure I am more likely to see a unicorn than finding that mythical defendant. While I figure that someone somewhere might have undeservedly received prison time for a drug charge, I can’t think of any case I’ve ever seen where that happened.
9thID| 3.8.12 @ 10:04PM
Robespierre Ron will come with a statement tomorrow asking Robertson to be his choice for VP.
The solution is easy, but the will is lacking:
- Secure the border
- Streamline and severely limit the appeals process
- Implement Sheriff Joe style jails and prisons including hard labor
- Mandatory sentences for repeat offenders including a 3-strikes you’re out capital sentence...
aware| 3.9.12 @ 5:46AM
Spoken like a true soldier of the prison/industrial complex. That brown shirt tail is showing again.
9thID| 3.9.12 @ 8:23PM
That, coming from a Libertine anarchist really hurts - not! Next time you become "aware" of reality and are not in a drug-induced stupor, you might just try refuting the common sense and logic of my post...
Drek| 3.9.12 @ 12:44AM
Well, there's a third option available, that doesn't require legalizing the pathway to narcotics.
We could alter penalties, for instance: car licenses, voting rights, mortgages, college acceptances.
But the other thing we could do is make prison rape a capital crime.
How about that?